Between Sicily and Tunisia in the Mediterranean lies a secret hideaway of Europe’s rich and famous – the small Italian island of Pantelleria. Peaceful and quiet, the opposite of glitzy places like Ibiza, wealthy elite retreat here in luxurious yet very ...

When my son Brandon was a cadet at Virginia Military Academy, his professor teaching Modern Military History gave a lecture on the 1980s War in Afghanistan fought by Afghan Mujahaddin against the Soviet Red Army occupation of their country. One of the pict ...

The small black mountain in front of you is a volcano called Tavurvur on the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea. In 1994, Tavurvur erupted, covering New Britain’s beautiful capital Rabaul in ash. The entire area is volcanic, including the hot spri ...

In a remote valley between the northern escarpment of the Tibetan Plateau and the Gobi Desert of Inner Mongolia, you find these magic painted mountains of red sandstone created by Himalayan uplift and millions of years of erosion.  It’s at the sunrise ...

In a remote corner of the Pacific Ocean, off the island of Pohnpei in Micronesia lies one of the world’s great archaeological mysteries: the only ancient stone city built on a coral reef. No one knows who built it or how. Micronesians say their ancestor ...

This is the black sand beach the US Marines stormed on February 19, 1945, beginning the legendary Battle of Iwo Jima.  Overlooking the beach is Mount Suribachi, where four days later Joe Rosenthal took his iconic photo of six Marines planting the US flag  ...

Bamian, Afghanistan 1973.  I spent some time in the Bamian Valley north of Kabul 50 years ago.  What you see is the largest of the Bamian Buddhas carved into to sandstone cliffs in 600 AD by a Central Asian people who revered Buddha and called themselves ...

My wife Rebel and I love this uniquely picturesque ancient Berber village in Morocco where everything is painted in shades of blue. Suffused in soothing blue, there’s no more relaxed place than just about anywhere. Everyone is welcome from the wealthy st ...

The Salar de Uyuni, 12,000 feet high in the Altiplano of Bolivia, is a 4,000 square mile expanse of salt so flat it is used to calibrate the altimeters of NASA observation satellites of the earth. After a rain, it becomes the world’s largest mirror, 80 m ...

We’re in Portugal preparing for our WWX Portugal Exploration 2024 (May 3-12) where it’s sunny, clear, 64 degrees, and wildflowers are everywhere.  This as a huge Nor’easter is burying the whole northeast in snow today (2/13). Lisbon, by the way, is  ...

Most of you have noticed my adventure travel company of over 40 years, Wheeler Expeditions, is now Wheeler-Windsor Expeditions. That’s because of my new partner, Edward Windsor – yes, as in the House of Windsor, the British Royal Family, cousin to K ...

Rebel and I, along with our friends with us, always have a great time in Albania.  Here’s a pic she took of me with a stein of delicious Birra Tirana lager.  You’re sure to have so much fun yourself by joining us and your fellow TTPers on our Alban ...

The Himbas are a tribe of nomadic cattle herders in far northern Namibia. Himba women make a paste of butter fat and red ochre clay called “otjize,” to protect their skin from the burning African sun and braid their hair for beautification. The Himbas ...

Have you ever seen the ocean turn day-glo pink? It does here naturally during a sunset (this is not photoshopped). Between Samoa and Tonga in the South Pacific is a raised coral atoll, 100 square miles of old limestone between 60 and 200 feet high: the isl ...

In the city of Lezhë overlooking the Adriatic Sea, there is a memorial to Albania’s national hero, Scanderbeg (1405-1468). Born Giorgi Kastrioti in this city of northern Albania, he earned the title of “Lord Alexander” – Scanderbeg in Albanian – ...